A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! And thank you for the well wishes for my daughter, too 3 She is all better now. Tremendous thanks to lanamarymack and Angela 007 for alpha/beta reading this chapter. You can find me on tumblr (nauticalparamour).
Please let me know what you thought of chapter forty-four and be on the lookout for forty-five next week!
Tom sat at his usual table at Bottle & Glass, a glass of firewhiskey in front of him. It was hard to believe that he was actually going to do this, but he didn't see any other way forward if he wanted to have Hermione back at his side.
Obviously, he knew that he could not continue down the disastrous path that he'd seen from her future, the effects of his obsession with pureblood politics causing far too much destruction. It was a rallying call that was too seductive to pass up for the other side. And, as he'd told his Knights, if he took power by force, he knew that Dumbledore and his people would never stop fighting him.
He had to look deep within himself to evaluate and decide what he truly wanted. There was a time in his youth that the ideology of pureblood supremacy had spoken to him. He'd just discovered his true bloodlines had traced back to Salazar Slytherin himself and it was easy to lap up everything that Slytherin believed in. Tom had dreamed about fulfilling Slytherin's "noble work" of removing all muggleborns from Hogwarts.
But, when he thought about it now, there was just too much evidence to the contrary. For one, he knew now that he was just latching on to any legitimate magical connection in his history because of his unfortunate orphan status, rather than it being a truly held belief. Because, how could it be a truly held belief when he was only a half-blood himself? When his filthy muggle father's blood ran in his veins?
He still hated the man his father had been, leaving his mother at her most vulnerable, but Tom knew he had to face the facts. He was the best wizard that Hogwarts had produced in decades and he was well on his way to being the most powerful wizard alive. And, he knew deep in his heart that his muggle blood had not taken away anything from his magical ability.
Meeting Hermione had only cemented that thought, knowing that she was a muggleborn herself, but smarter and more eager to learn than most of his Slytherin classmates. She had an appreciation for the skill of magic that many of his peers merely took for granted. He was again sure that her being born to muggle dentists would not have changed anything about her magical prowess than if she had been Evan Rosier's younger sister.
So what did he want? Well, Tom longed for power, to be the one in charge, the one making the decisions. He wanted people to tremble at his power and he didn't want anyone trying to tell him how he should wield it. He wanted to be the ultimate decider. Everyone would do what he said and moreover, they would like it.
Being Minister for Magic had its merits. Abraxas had maybe been right about that. He was sure this was the correct path for him to tread, knowing what he knew from Hermione's future.
But what he wanted most of all surprised him. He wanted Hermione. She had given him a taste of what a true family could be like and he wasn't going to give it up now that he'd had it. She was a true partner, a true equal to him in every way. She was his dark priestess, the vision of her from Ostara with blood on her brow still locked into his memory. And he'd been neglecting her for too long.
He knew that if he wanted her back, he had to do this, to show her that he was serious. Hopefully then, she would have him as her partner, lover, confidant. They were perfect for one another, if he could just prove himself to her.
"Riddle?" a voice broke him from his reverie.
He looked up to see Edgar Bones and waved his hand to the other side of the booth, before flagging down the barkeeps for another glass and a bottle of firewhiskey.
"Thank you for meeting with me, Bones," he said, tipping his glass towards the other man before taking a drink.
"I'll admit that I was surprised to receive the invitation," Bones answered, taking a sip of his own drink. "After Lestrange got the votes for a second election, I figured I wouldn't be on your list at all."
"A mistake that I am hoping to rectify," Tom said, smartly. "I fear that I followed incorrect counsel in the last election."
"Yeah, well, Malfoy is pretty hardline," Bones agreed with a snort. "I doubt that you ever would have gotten many nibbles from anyone but his party following his platform."
"Yes, it's something that Hermione warned me about many times and I failed to listen," Tom answered, knowing that he needed to humble himself (or appear to at least) if he was going to get Bones aboard. "Malfoy was very…confident that we had the votes and I listened to him without pressing back too much."
Bones stared at him over top of his glass, trying to get a read on the other wizard. "And how is your wife?" he asked, cautiously. "Last I saw her, she was still pregnant. It seems as if hardly anyone has seen her lately."
Tom bristled, wondering if the other man was accusing him of having injured Hermione in some way. But he forced himself to push that feeling down. "Hermione has found herself enamored with being a mother," he lied, unwilling to reveal the real circumstances of Hermione's retreat from the public eye. "She scarcely leaves Caroline's side, though she is beginning to bring the baby on new outings. So, you might begin to see her around again in the near future."
"Good," Bones said, sounding appeased. "You know, there were some that whispered her disappearance was because of her blood status. It's no secret she's muggleborn. Though, I never believed the rumors," he was quick to add.
"I can understand the disconnect between my family life and the cause that I championed," Tom explained softly. "I can do nothing but admit that I made an error in judgment. Not only was it wrong to blindly follow Abraxas, but it was wrong to support his pureblood mania."
Bones smirked at him. "Yes, but were you wrong because you lost the election or because you actually disavow those beliefs?" he asked, pointedly.
"I no longer ascribe to that worldview that purebloods are better than muggleborns," Tom said, seriously. "I must admit at one time I was swayed by them, but it was due to my own upbringing."
"How do you mean?"
Tom took a deep breath, before knowing that he needed to lay his cards on the table. It was humiliating to open his part of himself up to Bones, but how could he be any more humiliated than he'd already been by losing the election and his family?
"Well, I don't know if you are aware, but I was raised in a muggle orphanage. My mother was a witch, but nearly a squib, if I'm honest. My father turned her out when she was pregnant with me and when she subsequently died birthing me, my muggle father refused me, instead relegating me to the orphanage."
"Merlin, Riddle, I had no idea that your childhood was so bleak," Bones said, sounding genuinely surprised to learn the truth.
"Yes, the people who ran the orphanage were not kind to me. They thought I was different and I suffered much abuse," he continued. "It was only when I turned eleven that I learned that I was a wizard and my magic was why I seemed so different."
"I can't imagine," Bones said, looking at Tom with an uncomfortable look.
"It was perhaps naive, but I attached very negative feelings towards muggles and by proxy muggleborns, for the hard life I had to live as a child, and positive feelings towards the purebloods who embraced me in Slytherin house," he continued. "I know now that was a rather childish worldview. Not all muggles are bad and neither are all wizards good."
Bones nodded in agreement, raising his glass before taking a drink. "Hear hear," he said. "Well, I'm glad that your thinking has evolved on the matter."
"Yes, and of course, my thinking has only been further shaped by my wife's experience," he said, hoping Hermione wouldn't be upset for him continuing the ruse her mind had supplied when he first met her. "She is almost on the opposite side of the spectrum. An extremely talented and powerful muggleborn who was somehow missed by Hogwarts. No one told her she was a witch, until she met another muggleborn in a home for displaced children. She is completely self taught."
"Wow," Bone said, suitably impressed. "I've seen her scores — I can't believe…"
"Neither could I," Tom agreed. "She would have just cause to be furious at the wizarding world who left her adrift, but instead, she has embraced our magical world wholeheartedly. She is a tempering force for me. And I know now that her advice is invaluable."
"So what is it that you hope to accomplish by being Minister?" Bones asked, turning his head to one side. "What are your ideas? Not Malfoy's?"
"I see much room for improvement in when we make muggleborns aware of our world," he started cautiously. "Why should I have been left alone and abused in an orphanage — and forced to return there every summer, mind you — for eleven years before I understood what was happening to me? And why should my wife have been allowed to be missed? Yes, the muggles have their own unrest, but that's just unacceptable."
"You want to bring the muggleborns into our world earlier," Bones said simply.
"I think that would be a good place to start," Tom hedged. "We should establish some sort of…not exchange program, but a way that muggleborns could connect with wizarding families to learn our ways earlier."
He wasn't about to tell Bones about his plans to make muggleborns choose between the wizarding world and the muggle world after they graduated. He did need to be elected first, after all.
"I think that's a fine idea," Bones said. "I'm surprised to find common ground with you. I just don't understand why Lestrange and other purebloods would be supporting you now, after Malfoy's platform failed."
"Of course, that is not the only thing that I want," Tom said, with a crooked smile. "I am extremely committed to removing the restrictions on pureblood rituals and traditions. We can accept muggleborns into our world without diluting our culture."
"Ah," Bones said, with a knowing look. "They are hoping that you'll repeal the laws."
"I will repeal the laws, Bones," Tom said, not wanting this to be a surprise. "What was once a bright, widely celebrated tradition has now been legislated into a tightly held pureblood secret. But, despite the laws, people still celebrate."
"I will deny it if you repeat this," Bones said, looking over his shoulders. "But my family still celebrates Yule the traditional way."
"You shouldn't have to be so secretive about it," Tom said, shaking his head. "You are doing nothing wrong, hurting no one. Just because some people have called it 'dark magic' doesn't make it so. They are trying to restrict us under the guise of welcoming the muggleborns. But, no one is making the muggleborns celebrate in our way if they don't want to."
"But, they would be permitted to if they wanted?" Bones clarified.
"Of course. And it is my hope that they would, once they understood the significance," Tom answered. "I would deny it if you repeated this, but Hermione has fully embraced the old ways. She understands the importance and the magic in them. She is the one who opened my eyes to the possibility that a muggleborn might be able to look past the rhetoric and just enjoy being a witch and all that entails."
Bones seemed pleased. "Well, Riddle, you've impressed me," he said, looking him up and down. "Enough that I will bring your proposal to my caucus at least. I think you will find that there are many moderates who would find this appealing, so long as it isn't attached to keeping muggleborns out. They don't want to be seen as bigoted."
"Of course," Tom said. "Who would?"
"Expect an owl, Riddle," Bones said, with a friendly smile and a handshake. "You might just be Minister after all."
Tom fought the smirk that threatened to take over his face. "All I ask is a chance to share my vision of the wizarding world," he said, pleased that Bones could be convinced to see things his way.